Department of Homeland Security

DHS Update

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has completed its Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 H-1B visa lottery and mailed out receipt notices for the petitions accepted for processing under the H-1B visa cap. Petitioners that have not received H-1B petition receipt notices for the filings under the cap by the current date should check on the

Department of Homeland Security

H-1B Visa & Form I-9 Updates

On April 7, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reached the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa cap for the government’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. USCIS also confirmed it had reached the cap under the 20,000 H-1B petitions allocation for U.S. advanced degree holders. The agency has not yet indicated the anticipated timelines of the

Emergency Immigration Alert

Premium Processing Suspension for H-1B Petitions

Starting April 3, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will temporarily suspend premium processing (i.e., 15-day expedited processing) for all H-1B petitions for up to 6 months. Importantly, since April 3, 2017 marks the start of the cap-subject H-1B petitions acceptance for the Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18), the suspension will affect all petitions filed

Department of Homeland Security

H-1B Season is Nearing

H-1B Season is Nearing! April 1, 2017 marks the beginning of the new H-1B petition filing season with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). As in prior recent years, the filing season is likely to be brief (i.e., most likely, limited to the first week of April) and, if more petitions are received than

Executive Orders

Immigrant & Non-Immigrant Entry Suspended for 7 Countries

On January 27, 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order (“EO”), “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States”, which, among other things, suspended immigrant and nonimmigrant entry for nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, for a minimum of 90 days. The state of Washington, later joined by